le Démon Sombre de l'Ange
by Daroga's Rainy Daae
Summary: After Javert's jumping of the bridge as a suicide attempt, a young vampire named Delano de Roux saves him and gives him a new life of immortal evil and danger.
1. Delano de Roux

When Javert regained consciousness, he was greeted by the soft sound of trickling water. Although he was still too dazed to pry his eyes open, he knew that darkness surrounded him, and he was soaking wet. Twilight insects chirped around him and all was eerily calm. As his head stopped spinning and he began to think straight, the realization hit him that _he was not dead_.

In a moment of fright, Javert opened his eyes wide and standing above him, was a grinning person who he had never seen before. The inspector immediately drew back from his visitor, forgetting about the dull pain that throbbed throughout his body. He shuffled against the sand of the banks while staring in shock at his company, for he was not and could not be -- or so Javert decided -- real.

"Go away; you are a delusion of my mind," Javert said. His voice was coarse and awkward. He continued to stare at the young man, who was dressed like a nobleman, wearing a jacket of deep blue and trousers of spotless white. On his feet he wore glossy black boots which came nearly up to his knees and had obviously been tailored to fit as they did. His eyes glowed with ethereal beauty against his chalk-white skin, his hair long and dark, hanging wildly at his shoulders; but what Javert could not take his eyes off of were the man's irregularly long and pointed eye teeth.

"I am no delusion," the man replied at long last. The policeman noted that his eyes reflected the moonlight like a cat's.

"You are not of this world. Why aren't I dead?" Javert spluttered. _Or am I dead__?_ he thought.

"I saved you," the creature answered calmly, smoothly. He took a step forward, and Javert hastily took a shuffle back. He would have stood had he been able to. "Let me introduce myself," the man continued. "I am Delano de Roux. Do not be frightened by me. I am what you would call a vampire, but I am not here to kill you. I have a proposition to make."

"You want me to join you," Javert guessed, regaining his confidence and standing with fair effort.

"Exactly," the man responded.

"Never," the inspector spat automatically, a glimmer of his old sneer returning. "You expect me to follow you in your ridiculous blood-sucking, wandering by night and shrinking from the crucifix? Do you even understand who you are talking to? I am an inspector, and I go against everything you stand for. I'll laugh you away."

"Do you forget that you tried to kill yourself, monsieur?" Delano shot back quite as harshly. "That you would have died if not for me, that you flung yourself from a bridge not too far from here, because you were too overwhelmed to know what to do with yourself? Send a man to jail that saved your life, or let a thief go? Either way you lose. I give you the chance to win."

"How did you know..?" Javert started, but the vampire interrupted him.

"I have been watching you, Inspector Javert. I have a fascination for human lives that you will not comprehend. Your life was most interesting, and I wouldn't let it go."

"For one who kills humans to live, you understand why I find that hard to believe," Javert answered.

"Your sarcasm is most amusing, sir. I don't suppose you think I am actually here," Delano said.

"Of course you're not. Vampires aren't real. I am in no way superstitious, and am confident that I have clearly gone mad. Shall I try at the bridge again? For some reason, my affairs with the prisoner 24601 seem so distant…" Javert seemed now to be talking to himself.

"Perhaps you are a bit daft, inspector, but your old life will not matter to you at all once you are one like me," Delano said softly.

"Why are you still here?" Javert said, suddenly shouting at the top of his lungs. "I told you to go away! You are a figment of my imagination!" He squeezed his eyes shut and began to pace, blinking over and over and still the vampire did not disappear.

"I think you are fretting because you know that I am as real as you are," Delano said calmly, trailing Javert's movements with flicks of his sharp eyes.

"If you won't leave, I will," Javert growled, spinning around and starting to stride swiftly away, but with impossible speed, de Roux had caught him by the arm with harsh, icy fingers that the policeman could feel even through his jacket.

"No, you won't," Delano retorted with a smirk that sent terrified chills through the inspector.

"You are real," Javert whispered, all color draining from his face. "Let me go, you devil!"

"Once I am through," Delano replied.

"No," Javert protested, giving a vain tug.

"You are afraid, monsieur. Afraid because you know you have no power over me, perhaps? Because you cannot prosecute me?" He let out a barking laugh and ran his tongue along his sharp teeth. There was a moment in which Javert's hard yet terror-filled eyes met the calm and mischievous eyes of the vampire's before the young creature of the night launched himself at his victim, striking like a cobra and sinking his teeth gracefully into his neck.

For an instant Javert felt the needles prick his skin, but as they touched the jugular vein in his neck, fierce pain shot throughout his body. He gave a suppressed scream, gritting his teeth and trying to pull away, but Delano had his inhumanly-strong arms around his head so that he couldn't budge an inch. When the vampire began to drink his blood, Javert felt paralysis taking over, at the same time seeming as if his very soul was being drained. Longer and longer, the creature drew more blood until the inspector's heart began to pound furiously.

_ I will not live; God, I'm going to die by your dark angel's demon!_ Javert thought fearfully to himself, only able to gape stupidly while the vampire continued his steady rhythmic drinking.

When Javert thought he could take no more, Delano pulled away, his teeth slipping so smoothly from the policeman's skin than not one drop of blood was outwardly shed. Still unable to move, Javert was set gently to the ground, only capable of staring hazily up at Delano through blurred vision.

"My life is… over, you… fool…" Javert muttered under his breath, almost incomprehensibly. His voice was slurred and sluggish, his heartbeat faint and dimming.

"Yes," Delano replied. "It is." With that, he tore open his own wrist and shoved it into Javert's mouth. He gave a fresh muffled cry of surprise, but abruptly stopped when he felt the warm and shocking blood trickling into his mouth and down his throat. This blood was not ordinary -- it was life itself in liquid form! He was sipping life, and he loved it!

Javert continued to guzzle the drink mindlessly, subconsciously locking his hands around the wrist and forcing it to stay where he wanted it, where he could direct it.

"That's enough for you, monsieur," the vampire hissed, trying to resist Javert's grasp. He could not easily pull away from such a locking hold on his hand, as his victim was plainly intent on fighting for this ambrosia with brute and subliminal force. "_Assez__!_"

Delano wrenched free of Javert, watching him with intense fascination as the inspector took deep gasping breaths as his chest rose and fell rapidly. Sudden changes began to take place. Lines in the man's face disappeared; sinking away into his skin as it tightened and molded itself, formed a younger visage. Javert's hair grew thicker and gradually turned dark brown simultaneously. The inspector's entire body changed to fit the face of a man no older than twenty five, full of life and energy. His eyes shone brightly as he gazed into the sky, dumbfounded by what was happening to him. The transformation was complete.

There was a long moment of silence as Javert merely breathed and took in his surroundings. His senses were sharper than they had ever been. He heard conversations miles away, he listened to a woman's heartbeat in the cottage up the hill. He saw the blazing stars with intensity that hurt his eyes to look at, he saw the patterns of a firefly's wings.

"Do you like it?" Delano said, quietly.

"You bastard," Javert retorted, his voice fluid and strong. "What did you do to me?"

"I gave you my gift; your new life," Delano replied simply. "Welcome… to the beginning of a _very _long time."


	2. Un Nouveau Javert

Javert sat up abruptly and ran his tongue along his pointed eye teeth. Carelessly, he drew blood, misjudging how sharp his teeth now were.

"Like them?" Delano asked, eyes glimmering with mischievous light.

"You would think," Javert answered dryly, ending his exploration of the changes he'd undergone abruptly and glaring at the vampire with defiant stoniness. Delano merely chuckled at him.

"Your efforts to conceal your fascination are a waste of time. You are silly to even think for a moment that I would not know how good it feels to obtain such power as you have now. You love it. I do not doubt that in the least," Delano said, confidently.

"You should, for you are most horribly mistaken," Javert replied, unconvincingly. He pulled himself to his feet and looked down at himself and at his surroundings as if he'd never laid eyes upon the scene before. "I'm wet, but I can't feel the chill," he remarked under his breath.

"It is because you are already as cold as death," Delano responded, thoughtfully, gazing at Javert strangely. The inspector noticed this.

"You enjoy staring at me. Why? You wish to look upon your creation, is that it? Admiring your work? You're a brute, that's what. An evil monster damned to prowl the night," Javert spat.

"Same as you," Delano retorted.

"Did you do it for company? So I may share in your suffering?" Javert asked, poisonously.

"I did it to save you," he said, patiently. Javert inwardly fumed with rage, trying to keep calm in front of the fiend.

"But I haven't sold my soul, I haven't… done anything wrong, I'm not a criminal, I haven't gone against anything good-"

"Unless God has condemned you to follow me because of your suicide attempt at the bridge," Delano replied, voice rising and interrupting Javert's incessant rambling.

"You're mocking me," he growled.

"Yes, I am," de Roux replied.

"But you are right," he answered in near-horror. "What shall I do now; I couldn't stand to live like this!"

"You must," the vampire said. "You are immortal and cannot be killed."

"What about the sunlight!" Javert protested.

"Firstly, I would not allow you to try to kill yourself if the sun could destroy us. Secondly, it cannot. The stories are not true, but have been exaggerated over time with basis in fact. We are not killed by sunlight, but merely could become blinded by it because it is just too strong for our acute sense of sight. We are nocturnal because of this. We sleep during the day and while we're in our slumber, we immediately fall into a deep state of unconsciousness that we cannot be awaken from until evening falls once more," Delano explained.

"You make it sound as if you want me to live like this," Javert said, resentfully.

"Quite frankly, it's not what I want; it's what I will have because _you_, my friend, have absolutely no choice as to your fate from now on. It's in my hands and you'd best mind me, so shut up and pay attention," Delano said icily, voice rising again. He looked quite menacing when angered, his teeth bared and eyes flushed as if they made up for the color that was nonexistent in his pale face. "You will do everything I say or you will find yourself in an even more unfortunate position than you ever were before. I am not the only one of my kind, and others would gladly get rid of you in the blink of an eye."

"You said you couldn't be killed," Javert shot back, not even swayed by the vampire's frightening appearance, and refusing to refer to vampires as his own kind.

Delano regained his composure and pursed his lips in effort to keep from bursting out again. Instead, he talked with a cool air, inching closer and closer toward the inspector as he spoke. "No, we cannot be killed. But understand this; there are things we have discovered that are far worse than death. Once they're through with you, you'll be wishing you could die just to end the pain. You would not believe how vampires feel it. It is excruciating and you would not be so cocky if you came across one who does not mind watching his own become insane." 

By this time he had grasped Javert by the neck and was right in his face so that all the inspector could do was stare into the vampire's eyes, unable to pull away from his cold, strong grasp while he continued. "Trust me, follow me, and you will be saved a torture you would rather die from. I am not the worst of my kind. You are lucky to have caught my attention, and not another's. If not for me, you'd be dead. Shape up, _monsieur_, or you will find yourself a gibbering creature without a brain wandering about the streets blindly for the rest of your miserable existence, which will be forever. It will be your own private _hell_!"

Delano shoved Javert back a few feet for emphasis as he spat those last words and the newly created vampire staggered and gasped for air. He had been affected by de Roux's speech, and though he steadily glared, Javert felt his hands trembling slightly.

"You cannot protect me," Javert muttered, shaken. "I will not follow you."

"Then you draw your own fate. A life of madness, you stubborn fool," the vampire replied, coolly.

"I will live as normally as I can, and will not embrace your pitiful race of devil worshippers," Javert insisted. "It will be as if it were all a dream." And he strode off without a second glance. Of course he expected that Delano would follow him or try to stop him. The vampire just stood there and watched the inspector pass through the trees. He knew he would return.

Javert stepped quickly over roots and rocks in the path, striding swiftly through the forest and trying not to pay attention to the nagging voice in the back of his mind which kept warning him of the danger he could be in if he didn't stick by his maker.

"I'm better off without him," he said to himself. "I can handle myself. I'm doing fine. I am a human, and I refuse to live like a demon. I will eat food and drink wine. There is nobody to stop me from that. I have no urge to kill people, to drink from them. Ah, drink. I must drink, I am most terribly thirsty. No matter. There is an inn not too far away if I can remember straight. I will follow the gas lights up on the street. Why aren't I walking the street like a normal man?"

He climbed up the hill and out of the forest, making his way onto the road, continuing his brisk pace by the lights. He discovered at once that he did not need them; that he could see better without the street lamps causing him to squint. "This is better than the forest, though. Yes, I hope I make it to the inn, soon…" He licked his parched lips and began to travel faster. After many minutes of this walk, he saw a brighter light in the distance. "Thank God they are so late open," he muttered to himself, breaking into a run and discovering that with his improved body, he was most inhumanly quick. He immediately stopped such a run and forced himself to walk the rest of the way to the homey building, ordinarily.

Javert pushed open the wooden tavern door to be greeted by a noisy threesome of late-night drunks in one corner. The old and ragged bartender was cleaning a table, but when he saw Javert, he quickly stepped behind the counter to get his order. Javert noticed every line in the old man's face, his piercing brown eyes and his bright white hair which hung wildly around his face.

"What'll it be for you tonight, monsieur?" the man asked, gruffly, tiredly.

"A large brandy, if you'd please," Javert answered hurriedly. The bartender eyed him in question as the inspector, pale and disheveled, demanded such a drink so late at night (or early in the morning), but received his request. He was a paying customer after all.

_ And a good one at that_, noted the bartender as Javert carelessly emptied his pockets onto the countertop.

"Here's to be rid of that brute," Javert muttered under his breath before snatching the flask from the old man and drinking deeply from it. A moment later, he spat the alcohol onto the counter, gaining a strange look from his company. "It is horrid," the inspector said, disappointed.

"Take another, on the house," the man said, gruffly.

"I'll take anything else you have," Javert grumbled. "A glass of water will do."

The old man stared, but filled Javert a mug of well-water. A drink of this caused similar effects.

"What is wrong with me," he gasped to himself under his breath. Despite the awful taste, Javert downed the water and gagged, though his throat was no less parched than before. He threw the mug down in frustration and gave a cry of rage.

"Monsieur, you should leave," the bartender said with fright.

"Most definitely," he agreed, rushing from the tavern and slamming the door behind him. He rushed as far away from there as possible, wandering and thinking of what could be happening to him, trying to ignore his terrible thirst.

"I will not drink blood," he whispered to himself. "I won't!" Javert felt his head spin as he hurried along to nowhere in particular. "I won't accept it."

His aggravation was interrupted by the faintest glow of natural light on the horizon and realized that it was the sun trying to rise.

"Damn," he growled to himself, remembering Delano's words.

_ "We are not killed by sunlight, but merely could become blinded by it because it is just too strong for our acute sense of sight…"_

Javert did not like the idea of becoming blinded by a thing such as the sun. He would not stand for that. Even if he didn't care to die, although he could not, now, he couldn't go without being able to see. If he was going to live, he was going to do it with all his senses intact and working.

"I have to get out of here," he murmured, dashing back down into the forest to find somewhere he could protect himself. There was nothing. No boulders in sight, no hollows in trees; he had no time to dig holes and finding shelter in somebody's home was inconceivable. His panic grew with the sun's rays, as although the birds hadn't even begun to chirp, the sky was growing lighter by the minute. Not only was he beginning to feel a slight pain behind his eyes, but he also felt an exhaustion that seemed to be overpowering him with every passing moment.

The inspector staggered out of the woods to come upon a backyard by the river, the twilight still reflecting the moon in the rippling waters. With his head spinning even more than it had been, eyes trying to focus, Javert drunkenly noticed a boat docked on the muddy banks and quickly stumbled in its general direction.

With his last ounce of strength, the inspector sloshed ungracefully into the waters and slipped underneath the boat, protected by the darkness it gave. He remained conscious only long enough to think to himself with utmost astonishment: _I am breathing under water…_

Then he was overcome by the comforting embrace of a deep sleep.


End file.
